STAKEHOLDERS:

Every member of the school community has an important role in assuring the success of a Two-Way Immersion program.  The following are suggestions for what steps and actions each stakeholder can take to support their program and remain involved.

Principal/building administrator:  The building administrator has one of the most important roles in supporting two-way immersion programming.  It is the building administrator who models and supports the philosophy and mission of the program for everyone in the building, including teachers, support staff, parents, and visitors from the community. 

• Articulates the underlying philosophy and goals of the two-way immersion program and makes decisions with those goals in mind

• Pursues highly-qualified teachers with bilingual credentials and qualified support staff for current and future positions within the TWI program.

• Establishes and maintains professional development and co-planning opportunities for all TWI building staff.

• Demonstrates behavior that is congruent with the philosophy that bilingualism and biliteracy are academic, emotional, and cognitive assets for all learner and can cite rationale for implementing bilingual programs.

• Frequently visits classrooms, encouraging teachers to reflect on their own practice in a collaborative/collegial atmosphere, to facilitate their professional growth and development.

• Establishes and maintains frequent contact with parents and families of TWI students, via meetings and conferences, newsletters, phone calls, or scheduled events/celebrations.

Teacher:  The two-way immersion teacher is a critical role in the success of a two-way immersion program. The instructional approaches and strategies utilized by the teachers reflect the overall philosophy of how students learn and progress most effectively and are key in assuring the students’ mastery of the necessary concepts, knowledge, skills, and language.  Quality two-way immersion teachers have received training and exhibit competence in those skills needed to work with linguistically, culturally, and economically diverse student populations, and have experience in planning lessons that are conceptually and thematically-based and that encourage language production as well as comprehension.  Skills a TWI teacher should demonstrate include are included in the Job Description for TWI Teachers in Resources.
 
Parents/guardians:  Family members of TWI students play a vital role in their student’s academic, emotional, and linguistic development.  A student’s ethnic and linguistic heritage constitutes an important aspect of any two-way immersion program; this heritage is both supported and developed by key family members and should be encouraged and facilitated as much as possible outside of the school day.  One unique aspect of a TWI program is the ability of school personnel, particularly teachers, of communicating with non-English speaking family members.  Such communication establishes a connection not possible when teachers do not speak the parents’ language and encourages greater parent involvement.  Both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking parents or other family members should be encouraged to visit the program frequently and share stories, chants, rhymes, songs, traditions, or customs from their own childhood.  This is a powerful, personal way to develop students’ cultural competence and encourage appreciation for different customs, traditions, or daily life patterns.